Tigers rain 3s on UNC

Sunday

Feb 1, 2004 at 7:34 AM

Jon Solomon The (Columbia) State

For one Saturday afternoon, Clemson did more than imagine being the basketball program it yearns to become. The Tigers experienced it.

When the celebratory mosh pit subsided, when the 3-pointers stopped falling, when the boisterous sold-out crowd at Littlejohn Coliseum departed, Oliver Purnell had experienced his first signature victory at Clemson. It happened just as he wrote on the board to his players beforehand: "Make a statement." The Tigers shot a school-record 11-of-13 on 3-pointers and upset No. 12 North Carolina, 81-72.

The Tigers celebrated their first victory against a ranked opponent in two seasons by dancing and exchanging high-fives in the student section.

The Tigers (9-10, 2-6 ACC) entered the game shooting a league-worst 23.4 percent on 3-pointers and had made 19.7 percent during their four-game losing streak. Led by Shawan Robinson's career-high 24 points, Clemson made 84.6 percent of its 3-point attempts, surpassing the previous school record of 80 percent.

"Basketball is a percentage game, a game of odds. If you can shoot a little bit, sooner or later you're going to have a night like that," Purnell said. "It just happened to be the best night in the history of Clemson basketball."

The Tar Heels (13-5, 3-4) dropped to 2-19 in ACC road games since they lost as the nation's top-ranked team at Clemson on Feb. 18, 2001.

"Before we played Virginia, they were 1-of-7 from the free-throw line. They played us, they were 20-of-22 (actually 23) from the game," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "So we're the remedy for everybody's shooting woes. It's not a good feeling, but we can't use that as an excuse."

Clemson was 4-of-5 on 3-pointers in the first half and 7-of-8 after halftime.

"That's shocking," Robinson said. "That's crazy to me." Said Babalola: "That's pretty unbelievable. When they started falling, I knew God was definitely looking out for us today." Divine intervention aside, Clemson accomplished the feat with some persistence and better passing, even though the Tigers' 20 turnovers might not show it.

As expected, North Carolina came out trapping often against the Tigers' young backcourt. The Tar Heels rank last in the ACC in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense.

But North Carolina's concern was inside, not with Clemson's perimeter players.

"We felt like we needed to be solid inside, and the law of averages (is) that they'll make 23 percent against us probably, too," Williams said.

The traps bothered Clemson players, but they were often able to step through them and find open teammates on the wing.

"We had a lot more open looks than we usually have from the outside," Christie said. "We were making the extra pass, so the person who shot had a better look." Robinson was the greatest benefactor. In the three games since he entered the starting lineup, he has averaged 20 points per game.

His outside shots had not been falling, though. Robinson was 9-of-34 (26.5 percent) beyond the arc in his previous seven games.

Robinson had shown some frustration recently about missing so much. But he pledged to keep shooting because he believed that not taking open shots would hurt the team.

Instead of taking hundreds of shots at practice, Robinson worked on his jumper in contests with reserve Beau Shay.

"Shooting contests under pressure," Robinson said. "Sometimes that's the best solution." It was enough for Clemson, which had not defeated a ranked opponent since a 118-115, triple-overtime victory against Wake Forest on Feb. 13, 2002.

"I'm proud of this group of guys because they hung in there. It's huge from that standpoint, special from that standpoint," Purnell said. "But hopefully the teams I coach here will have a lot more wins over the years."